MSP Staff Physician
Director of Apheresis

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
UC Davis Medical Center
4400 V St.
Sacramento, CA 95817

• Therapeutic apheresis
• Progenitor cell collection
• Transfusion medicine and blood banking
  

• Cellular therapies

Dr. Leonor Fernando graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia in Bogota, Colombia in 1966.  She went on to complete her clinical hematology training at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, NY and then worked with Dr. Don Thomas at the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at the University of Washington for one year.  After moving to California in 1975, she spent the next 28 years at the Sacramento Blood Center, now known as BloodSource.  Prior to joining the Department of Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in 2007 as the Director of Apheresis, Dr. Fernando served as the Acting Medical Director of the Transfusion Medicine Division at UCLA for 2 years. 

As Director of Apheresis, Dr. Fernando oversees all the Apheresis activities for the UC Davis Medical Center including plasma and red cell exchanges, white cells and plalate reductions and stem cell collections in both adult and pediatric patients.  She is currently working on developing and implementing the photopheresis program which will be only the second one in Northern California.

Dr. Fernando actively participates in several committees for the American Society for Apheresis and is on the Program Relations Committee for Foundation for the Accreditation for Cellular Therapies (FACT).  She is also a FACT Inspector for both Apheresis and Cord Blood Collections.  Dr. Fernando holds memberships with the American Association of Blood Banks, California Blood Bank Society, International Society of Blood Transfusion, and California Latino Medical Association.